Mwanachingwala urges HH to leave Pact

United party for national development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema should own up and accept the truth about the demise of the Patriotic front-UPND pact and formally move on to seek a way forward for his political career.

Chief Mwanachingwala of the Tonga speaking people in Mazabuka district has said that Mr Hichilema risks his political career going into extinction if his party does not quickly forget about the pact and look for a way ahead.

The traditional ruler told the Sunday Times during the week that Mr Hichilema should own up and star looking at ways in which her can enhance his chances for his political future.


The Chief said that from inception, he had advised Mr Hichilema that he would be duped by Mr Sata but that Mr Hichilema had decided to disregard his counsel.


He said that the UPND on its own would not achieve much politically because it was a regional party just like the PF, hence the need for Mr Hichilema to work with others.

The chief said it would be prudent for Mr. Hichilema to work with president Rupiah Banda to secure his political future and enhance his chances for 2016.


He said Mr Hichilema still had a chance to make it in politics because he was young but that there was need for him to position himself especially for 2016 by which time he would have ripened fully politically.

“There is completely no pact there, Mr Hichilema should work with RB (President Banda) if he wants to have a chance for State House in 2016. For now HH should forget about State House and instead he should support RB,” the outspoken traditional ruler said.

He said that as a traditional leader he had been interacting with the people at the grassroot level all over the country and he knew what they wanted.

He said that politicians should be realistic and identify their weaknesses instead of always pretending to be stronger than they actually were.

Confusion and acrimony has engulfed the PF-UPND pact with officials from both sides issuing statements that are at variance with the originally stated mission for the pact.

Officials from both PF and UPND have asserted that their respective parties were more popular than the other countrywide, this has created doubts as to weather the parties will follow the format where they don’t contest elections in the same constituency but give chance to which ever party appears stronger in a particular area to contest elections.

But Chief Mwanachingwala said that both political parties were not strong enough to match the popularity of the MMD because they did not have a national character.

“We should be sincere when we talk about this, UPND can’t make it alone just like my friend’s party the PF.” he said.

And former Patriotic Front member, Mubanga Chileshe said the intentions of the PF in forming the pact were to destabilizing the UNPD structures in the country.

Mr Chileshe, who was mobilization chairman for the committee of founders of the PF, said PF leader Michael Sata wanted to weaken the UPND structures by claiming to be popular than his counterpart Hakainde Hichilema after the two had been seen to work together.

“This is why you have heard that he is already claiming to be popular in Chilanga constituency where the UPND came second in the 2006 elections.” he said.

Mr. Chileshe said time had come for the UPND leader to immediately pullout from the alliance before he was tossed out at the eleventh hour by Mr Sata.

“In the case of the pact, Mr Sata will do everything to frustrate HH so that he (Mr Hichilema) pulls out of the pact and he remains alone after destroying the UPND party structures.” Mr. Chileshe said.
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Matantala is Chona's political launch pad - MP

MOOMBA Member of Parliament (MP) Vitalis Mooya has challenged Matantala rural integrated enterprise (M-RIDE) founder Mark Chona to come out in the open and state what the purpose of the organization was because there were indications that it was being used as a political launch pad for a number of people.
Mr Mooya said in an interview during the week that Mr Chona who is former Taskforce on Corruption executive chairperson, should come out in the open and state whether it was t true that the organization was being used to prop up some people close to him for political positions.
Mr Moomba said that indications on the ground were that Mr. Chona wanted to use the Matantala to prop up some relatives and friends for political positions.
“I am challenging him to state whether Matantala is not being used as a political launch pad for himself, his close relatives or indeed for a political party for his friends. He should tell the nation whether Matantala is not being used to prop up some people politically.” he said.
Mr Mooya said as the area MP for the constituency in which most of the activities were being undertaken by Matantala and where meetings were held with political pronouncements, he was concerned about the operations of Matantala.
He cited the recent political pronouncement by economist Chibamba Kanyama at a workshop at Kasaka in Moomba constituency that Tongas would not produce a president unless they see opportunities in networking with others.
The parliamentarian said the statement, which was published in the September 25 2010 edition of the Post Newspapers was very political and challenged Mr Kanyama to state whether he was misquoted or not.

“Many Tongas like myself were injured,” he said.

Mr Mooya said even if Mr Chona had said he was not involved in politics given the issues raised during Matantala functions it was difficult to believe and it was the reason why he should come out in the open and tell the nation the true position.
He, however, stated that as area MP he was not scared of whoever the project might come up with because he was close to the electorate who would have the final say.
And Commenting on the assertion by Mr Chona on radio Phoenix’s “Let the people talk’ program on Tuesday that his organization had done a lot in the three chiefdoms in which it operates in Mazabuka and Monze, Mr Mooya said the organization was merely supplementing government efforts.
He said that the government had put in place various development projects in the country aimed at meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) saying even if there were no Matantala in the three chiefdoms, the projects could have been undertaken by the government.
Mr Mooya also scoffed at Mr Chona’s assertions that Matantala had managed to significantly bring down poverty levels in the area saying that one organization could not manage to do that.
Matantala operates in Chiefs Chona and Mwanza in Monze as well as in Chief Hanjalika in Mazabuka.
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Mr. Mooya is the second person to carpet the operations of Matantala Development association in recent months.

In June, chief Chona of Monze announced that he would ban all activities of the association next year if Mr Chona failed to meet him to explain the organisation’s operations.

Chief Chona who had called on donors that support Matantala to thoroughly audit the operations of the organization said Mr Chona was operating illegally in the area because he had sidelined chief who was supposed to be a co-signatory to the contract for the organization to work in the chiefdom.

The traditional ruler accused Mr Chona of refusing to recognize his authority by dealing directly with some of the village headpersons in the area.

The chief said he had been waiting for Mr Chona to sit down with him and explain why Matantala operates in secrecy since 2007 and he had now, therefore, run out of patience hence the ultimatum which ends in December 2010.

He said Mr. Chona was leaving a lot of room for all sorts of speculation because of the secrecy with which he was operating the Matantala.


Mr Mooya said he did not want to come in and air his observations then as he thought the two should resolve their differences saying, however, that he had been keenly watching the operations of Matantala and thought it was now time to speak out.
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Focus on real issues - Hikaumba

By James Muyanwa

ZAMBIA Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Leonard Hikaumba has advised Zambians to focus on positive aspects of their political activities for the country to forge ahead in its development process.

Mr Hikaumba said it is important for all Zambians to concentrate on building peace in the nation because it was the basis for all endevours including development, democracy and social cohesion.

Mr. Hikaumba said in an interview that some of the trends in Zambia’s political and social arenas were not conducive to national development because they were diverting people’s attention from the real issues to triviality.


“Democracy , national unity and development can suffer in such an environment, the sooner people realized that what was happening has a negative bearing on all these, the better, so that they can change the approach,” he said.

He said that the labour movement was worried about the current situation in the country where people could not speak to each in a brotherly manner and appealed to Zambians to work hard to change the current culture.


He said it was strange that the culture of confrontation and acrimony had now even spilt to the non political arena to include churches, labour movements and sport.


Mr Hikaumba said holding different of opinion was allowed in a democracy and all citizens should realize that so that they could respect each other’s views no matter how divergent adding that every Zambian should strive to make peace and co-existence the foundations of national stability.
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